How to promote a forum

I have a 1000+ member, PR6 forum that could be considered the best in it's niche. I'm not saying I am an expert, but I do have some idea when I post this stuff.

 

What parts did you have trouble making sense of?

 

Your personal opinion on when to place ads?

 

I think you have that all figured out. The forum in your sig seems to be really coming along. Congrats!

Thanks for the rep btw. I always say, what goes around, come around.

 

Rmartish.... I took a look at your forum.. the first thing I noticed was how hard it was to read.. you have a black font on a dark blue background.. it's not easy on the eyes at all. That alone is going to drive most people away.

Second of all, you have way too many section for a brand new site. Start with fewer sections, and add them as you go.. otherwise there is a lot of empty content..

Trust me on those 2... I took a forum from nothing, 2 years later it had 5,500 members and I sold it for $XX,XXX....

 

You need to have people interested in talking about the subject, you can only fake off interest for so long. And the way you get people interested is by showing your own interest. Or hiring someone who does it well.

 

Yep... each time I started a forum, it was on a topic I was interested in... so I was able to post meaningful content..

 

And then the forum needs to be able to run on it´s own without you spending too much time on it.

 

That takes awhile.. also don't worry about what others will say... when I had about 30 members and was brand new, I was told by the "big boys" with 6,000 members that mine won't make it... well it hit 7,000 members last week.. so in their face! Success IS the best form of revenge!

 

Here is a short article How to promote a forum

 

true, but you will attract they right kinds of members.

 

Here the forum is not loading !
What the forum about.I can help u !

 

ahh come on? thats a copp out if I ever heard one, Share..

 

Thanks guys, there is some great input here.

I had considered not putting the affiliate bar along the top, and I agree it may be a negative with a new forum, so I will remove that. I only have google ads once in each topivc and I will leave the footer banner.

The Header is from my main website, and for the sake of familiarity it will remain. I know from physchology that people need to hear what they already know in order to react.

I will write a couple of articles and get them out there to see if they generate any traffic.

Thanks all.

BTW anyone else have a problem seeing the page?

 

I am currently trying to establish a sole forum myself too. Surely difficult, but its fun. My additional suggestion: Buy vBulletin and vBSEO. I have it on two forums allthough without posts search engines dont have much to crawl, so better get some members and quality posts first, then get vBSEO.

 

I'm fanatical about guerilla marketing and I don't like to share the good stuff either.